Libertus' Rise to the Top
It was bright day, glorious day, the crowd roaring from the stands, rising to greet the champions emerging from the entrance and into the monumental arena that laid before the wizards. Among them, a large, muscular man, showcasing a massive pompadour of such epic proportions was the first to greet the deafening fans, it was none other than Kazuma, the guild's newest member, treading along the the road in front of him with great pride to have the opportunity to represent Libertus this year in the Grand Magic Games. He pulls out a knife, exposing a comb to which he begins to stylize his hair. "Can you feel it boys? People are going to remember us after today," he begins to wave at the adoring crowds, with Kazuma flex his muscles in rapid succession. The announcer begins to list the names of the contestants coming into the arena, the spectators chanting the name of Libertus at the top of their longs, and for a second, Kazuma takes a minute to enjoy the exhilaration rushing through him as the contest was minutes away from starting, and he was confident that he and his fellow wizards were going home with the trophy in the bag. Liber Mendacii followed not too far after Kazuma, though instead of cheering and showing off he was quietly smoking a cigarette he smuggled past the security outside, only to let out one large puff of smoke in the face of Takudo when he had quickly turned his head. "So, tell me again why Pharzuph let you participate this year? Didn't know he cared so little about the games to allow a youngling like you play a part in it." Liber said to Takudo as the team continued walking, "You better not mess it up young blood." Liber warned as he flicked both of his wrists out to release the Knived Chain weapon under his sleeves, unleashing them just abit as he grabbed onto the tip knife of the chain, readying what the Grand Magic Games had instore for him. Liber was confident about Libertus achieving victory for the Grand Magic Games of X805, as he already knew the capabilities of all the Libertus team members, Kazuma the fresh meat to the guild and someone who Liber had heard promising things of from the other members of Libertus, Ash being a member of Rapio as someone Liber could trust and call upon for help if he needed to, Clara having already proved her worth at the guild's S-Class Trials as both his partner and his opponent, and Takudo who had also fought Liber in the S-Class trials showing expert skill in his Earth-Make magic. Clara Scarlet watching the crowd as she followed Liber, an ally and opponent for her during her S-class trials. The cheering crowd, a team of skilled allies, and a deus of pride eager to see her achieve victory. Her hood down she looked up at the sky "Such an audience, I hope no one has stage fright else that might make this difficult." As she said this she put her hood over her head as her mechanical tail stood idle for now. She knew little of everyone else aside from Takudo but held faith in her teammates as she awaited the trials to start eager to prove herself. Takudo Hayashi carelessly slipped his hands in his pockets as he walked alongside Liber, smoke puffing in his face and up his nostrils while ignoring comments that were obviously spurred in a futile attempt to rile him up for the Grand Magic Games. "Doesn't wonky teeth over there have anything better to do than to get on my nerves..." the Mage thought impatiently before exhaling the smoke that had entered through his nose. Though Takudo wasn't too fond of performing in front of large audiences, similar to that of the crowd crammed into Domus Flau, he intended to make his guild proud and was ready to begin the upcoming trials. Ash stretched himself out like a cat, smirking at the unadulterated exhilaration the crowd was releasing. Cracking his knuckles one after another before clicking his neck and spine, Ash was like an ocean - calm on the surface, but one trigger and he could become a whirling storm of death and destruction. As Clara was the only person here he had fought beside before, Ash moved towards her and ran a hand through his hair; the golden locks just wouldn't stay where they were put, constantly shifting around. Rolling his emerald eyes at the stupidity of his mop-like hairdo, Ash raised both arms and waved at the crowd. "Now, now my friends, save that bravado for our adoring crowds," Kazuma retorted, watching the excitement roll of the faces of his comrades, some more than others, into conquering the challenges that ahead of them, more than confident that Libertus was talented enough to compete. Making their way Leading his group outside the arena into a dark cavern, the crowd's cheering ceased in an instant as the doors behind them was sealed shut, only to be welcomed with a new roaring "fan". Glowing red eyes began to work their way toward the Libertus wizards, with every gaping footstep shaking the very ground beneath them, and ever single roar the beat bellied out induced a deafening ringing to their ears. From the shadowed region of the room, emerged an enormous Wyvern in it's cage, viciously gazing at a large tower at the center of a large grassy field. The announcer's voice began to blare out, "Inside this stone tower is a crown of glass that will shatter at even the slightest of noises above a whisper. Protect the crown while rallying the beast back into its cage." The mad beast emerged from the cage, quickly marching forward in a blind rage that was specifically fixated on the crown. Kazuma, slowly drawing out his wooden sword and gripping it with both hands, he aims it to the giant beast, quickly sprinting to meet it head-first. "So, it's time for beauty and the beast to duke it out, huh," swinging his sword forward, he bashes at the beast's face, staggering it's movements for a moment before casting one of his own spells, "Communion of Souls"; he summons forth multiple deceased souls to hold the beast down momentarily, giving his comrades time to ready themselves before the beast breaks free, moving backward toward the tower before whispering to them "knock it back into it's cage." Liber grinned as he watched Kazuma fight off the wyvern with a wooden blade, proceeding to begin running towards the beast after Kazuma had started moving towards the tower, "Here lads, no talking from now on yeah? I'll make sure this wuvern doesn't too." Liber said before unsheathing his Knived Chains at the flick of his wrist, causing the weapon chains to fly put of his sleeves and right to the sides. Readying his throwing arm, Liber proceeded to fling one of his Knived Chains at the beast's mouth, which did as he just planned as the Knived Chain weapon wrapped around the wyvern's long face, keeping the jaw shut as the Knived Chain weapon wrapped around it tightly and keeping the wyvern from roaring any longer, "By the gods, this lizard is the feisty one aye?" Liber thought to himself as he held onto the chain with his dear life. The wyvern began tumbling and stumbling to remove the chain from it's nozzle, attempting to shake off Liber's Knived Chains with all it's might but for some reason it could not. Liber smiled and looked towards Clara and the others and in his most gentle voice commanded, "Clara I'm going to have to ask you to use your god damn arms right now. I'll need you to whack it back into that cage over there yeah? Takudo once that monster is back in the cage I'll need you to use whatever Earth Magic spell you know to lock that door and stop the lizard from coming out. Ash, make sure Kazuma doesn't break that crystal yeah? No making sounds either, remember what the announcer said, shatter at even the slightest of noises above a whisper, so I swear to the gods if you two will start even a conversation in there while were busy I'm throwing you both into the cage with the wyvern in it. Clara nodded as her Machia Ex Deus activated with her two signature titanic arms, she made sure they didn't make any noise, so it took longer then usual for her arms to fully activate but thanks to both Kazuma and Libers efforts she had enough time to do so. As they activated she approached the Wyvern, it tried to knock her out of the way but before it could do so, Clara punched the wyvern knocking it backward, not enough but Clara was still on it. Using both her Titanic Arms she impacted the Wyvern's chest knocking it back into its cage. The wyvern was dazed but still resilient she stood her ground in case it tried to get out of the cage but it was now up to Takudo to make sure the creature would not escape from its home. Taking heed of Liber’s assertive, yet effective commands, Takudo quickly whipped his two index fingers out, causing multiple spikes to erupt from the ground. The Libertus mage hastily severed the tip of his spikes with one chop before proceeding to make his way to the Wyvern’s cage. Having arrived at the towering cage, Takudo inserted his twisted spike into a small lock clearly visible at the bottom of the cage's metal bars which were evidently dissimilar to its other proportions. Knowing the spike wouldn't be qualified to lock the already sealed cage, Takudo began molding the stake to suit the lock's internal structure. Finally, the mage whirled it round with a sharp swivel of the wrist to cause the cage door to bolt up. "Oh and one more thing..." the mage said to himself as a bigger cage purely comprised of earth and ethernano fell on top of the Wyvern's smaller cage. Ceaseless of his earthen creations, Takudo finished up by commanding abundant earth from the ground to ascend into the air and solidify as colossal walls. "Those walls and the earthen cage are reinforced with ethernano, so it shouldn't be able to pierce through them in the inconceivable event that it does escape from its metallic cage. Perhaps I'm being a little too paranoid..." At Liber's orders, Ash turned towards the imposing tower. A beautiful structure, made of large, stone blocks that seemed to have almost fallen into place, it was wrapped in a shroud of green ivy from the foundations to the roof. The floor plan was the shape of a hexagon, and each of the six sides of the tower held a large window on every floor. The window frames were graceful and elegant golden pieces of art, and the entire tower looked like it had slipped from a storybook of fairy tales. Walking up to the main door - large oak constructs that were held closed by a huge iron bar. One wave of his hand, and a shadowy claw burst silently out of Ash's palm. The demonic arm lifted the bar and placed it silently on the ground, before proceeding to open the door; walking through the doors, Ash coated himself in dark energy and raised himself a couple of inches off the ground. Floating up through the tower to the top, Ash reached the crown and collected it from its pedestal. A flawless piece of craftsmanship, it shimmered with an incredible amount of colours, ranging from red to violet and everything in between. "Not bad boys," Kazuma applauds his comrades for a job well done, looking at the beautifully constructed crown, Kazuma was sure they were one step closer toward finishing the trials laid out in front of them. Carrying on with his group, They make their way through a narrow corridor, growing steadily darker the further they went in. After what seemed like miles of running in the dark, they are greeted with a large metallic door, constructed in gigantic manner, as if to move something large into the next room. As he slowly gripped the door's surface, an incredible roar emanated from the other side of the door, violently shaking the door. As the Libertus wizards made their way past, the sight of savage three headed beast was laid out before them, growling and clawing at their immediate vicinity, obstructing their path to the next trial. Taking out his kendo sword, he immediately ignited it with his magical energy, flaring up with a splendid lavender color. However, much like moths to a flame, the Cerberus was instantly drawn to the glow of his sword, as if hypnotized by flashy appearance. "Fighting this thing would take too much effort, and we don't have that kind of time." Taking a quick instance to com e up with a solution, it immediately comes to him. "Guys! Let's try distracting this thing with our magic, that way we can just go around it." By combining their abilities, he was sure it would be sufficient to distracting it enough to make it past it unscathed. By starting off, Kazuma took his kendo sword outward and lunged it to the air, summoning forth wave of spirits that soared through the air, staying in place like buring candles, illuminating the entire area with an astonishing phantasmal blue hue that gave off a sense of eeriness and unnatural radiance, as if to set the stage for the show of a lifetime. "It's showtime!" The soul orbs hovering around at incredibly speeds began to create translucent azure-like lines through the room, resembling shooting stars, keeping it up, he leaves it to his allies to keep the show going. Looking up at the humungous Cerberus, Liber looked back at his time with a cheeky grin, "Oi lads, you think they'd let me take this boy home? I think it'd be time Libertus got a new pet." Liber joked with his hands on his hips before noticing that Kazuma had summoned strange entities onto the field, "Oh well won't you look at that, I'll hand it to you fresh meat, you sure do know what you're doing." he said before taking his part. "I actually will need you boys to step out of the way, I'm not even joking... This spell will litpterally suck out all your power if you get in it." Liber warned with a serious tone as he faced the shooting star display, holding his hands out infront of him as the members of Libertus ran out of the way. Infront of Liber was a large drawn pentagram full of magical energy, glowing brightly due to the amount of magic power that was built up inside, keeping his hands steady Liber began concentrating more and more energy into the pentagram, and in turn the symbol began glowing brighter and brigter until it finally popped. Due to the humungous load of magical power within the rune, the trap finally burst as the effect took place, in the air near the shooting stars was a magnificent display of a large, wide symbol that glowed bright colours of purple, pink, yellow and aqua. The three heads of the Cerberus turned to gaze at the stunning and beautiful display of light above him, as pink crystals formed on the perimeter of the large circle. Panting, Liber breathed heavily before slapping his chest with his palm and looking to the sky, "That took a bit more power than it needed..." he thought out loud as he watched for the others to take their turn. Taking note of the effectiveness of her comrades distractions, she quickly devised a way to create her own distraction, her machia ex deus and her imagination quickly working to create a distraction that would be effective. Clara's machia ex deus was always helpful in a pitch this time was no different, as Liber's distraction was going on her left arm glowed as a bright light started to channel inside of it, as Liber's distraction ended she aimed her left arm upward as a flare fired upward into the air as it reached a good distance above it exploded in a firework like symbol, the symbol of Libertus shining bright aimed to distract the Cerberus beast in front of her. As it was distracted she followed behind Kazuma and Liber to the exit hoping her allies were following shortly behind. "Perfect distraction", whispered Takudo under his breath. As opposed to pursuing his fellow guildmates to continue onward to the next trial, the young mage clasped his hands together before advancing his ritualistic movements by swaying his hands in an arc-like motion. Markings began to form underneath his eyes as his aura began to change and ethernano in the atmosphere shifted. "Sink..." he uttered, his two index fingers being raised into the air. Grains of quicksand started forming beneath the inattentive Cerberus that stood visibly distracted by Liber and Clara's "fireworks display". "That should do a good job in restraining him if his attention is drawn away from the display". the red markings dissipated as Takudo began the prompt process of exiting his demon form. "Onto the next challenge!", he thought to himself, a smirk spreading across his face as he ran behind Kazuma, Liber and Clara. A fang fell from the Cerberus' powerful jaw, and with it, a series of inscriptions decorated the surface, as if to relay a message, only to be half complete and indecipherable. Quickly making his way to the rest of his allies, they proceed to make their way to the next room where another trial awaited them, surely more strenuous than the last. A bead of sweat rained down from his cheek, hoping that they can make in time to complete all the challenges that stood between them and their victory in this year's Grand Magic Games. When entering the next stage, a variety of creates loitered the room in large amounts, scattered around in every which way. From out of nowhere, a large mechanized noise boomed throughout the room, as if a system of gears and circuits were working in unison to activate some sort of apparatus of such epic proportions. From out of nowhere, the a large door opened high above them, at a distance to vast for any of them to reach. Suddenly, the ceiling began to slowly move downward, purposing itself with inevitably killing all the inhabitants in this room. Quickly coming up with a way to close the distance between themselves and the door, an idea strikes him like lightning, "Everybody, start stacking the crates, if we build a staircase, we can get the hell out of here." Kazuma begins to lash out at the crates around him, smacking them across the room with his wooden sword with such a devastating force, a gust of wind swept the room, uplifting rocks and debris along with other crates in order to draw them closer to their objective. Making his way to the crate nearest to him, Liber proceeded to reach underneath and lift the crate up by himself, "Oh geez, these are heavier then they look..." Liber thought out loud before walking with the crate infront of him in the direction that Kazuma was whacking the crates to, "Show off..." Liber thought to himself as he watched Kazuma smacking thr crates with his brute force. Placing his crate down next to the ones that have already formed a bit of the staircase, Liber wiped his hands together to dust off anything that was on it, "Well that's the first one I've done I suppose." Liber sighed as he made his way to another crate. "To be honest, that ceiling up there isn't going to kill us you know. I very much doubt the Grand Magic Games organisers would really risk thee acutal lives of us mages you know." Liber said as his intentions were clear, the ceiling seemed to bug him alot as it descended downwards onto them and he didn't believe that he would die today just for the games. Having reached another crate that Kazuma didn't smack just yet, Liber began to do the same as he had done with the other crate, picking it up from the bottom and following the direction that Kazuma had smacked the crates to. Slamming her fists together Clara began knocking several crates over to the wall that had the door, even the heavy ones proved not much of a challenge towards her strength. Her strength itself did not rely on magic to power her, simply put she is a very powerful machina with a very high strength power to her. Pushing more crates to the wall she looked upward at the ceiling watching it descend, with her strength this sort of manual labor posed no real issue for her, she simply hoped there would be enough time to get out of the room before the ceiling gets too low. Takudo summoned forth earthen fists which began pummelling at some of the crates that were originally crammed into the middle of the boxed room thanks to the gusts of wind generated by the thrusts of Kazuma's sword. Not really designed for physical activity - one of the reasons he had chosen to have Titan stored within his Capture Origin - Ash nevertheless helped his teammates to move the boxes through the room to build the stairs. As he moved one box, he noticed a series of hinges on one side. Pushing on it, a hidden door swung open; a small piece of parchment fell out with a little bit of script on one side. Taking a quick look, Ash noticed it made almost no sense, so placed it in his pocket to examine later. He then continued to move the boxes with the rest of his team. A short while later, the five of them had built a structurally sound staircase they could walk up. Allowing the rest of his team to climb the makeshift stairs and out of the cave, Ash then quickly followed them into the fresh air. Sprinting their way atop of the staircase they built out of the scattered crates int he room, they leap forward, barely making out of the death trap, mere centimeters away from being crushed to death. What awaited them in the semi-final chamber was a massive field in which the only thing that inhabited this lonely room was a floating button situated perfectly in the center of it. The door behind them immediately seals shut, trapping them in, with a locked door on the ceiling on the other side of the room. The gravity within the room will began to fluctuate in all manners of ways, ultimately shifting it to the far right side of the room, causing the Libertus mages to fly through the air at violent speeds, changing directions and applied force ever ten seconds, sending everyone inside every which direction, slamming against the floors and walls within this sealed room. Kazuma expands the level of influence his Exorcism Magic has on his wooden sword, creating an ethereal body in which to cushion them from the series of slams that they were being barraged with. Creating four spiritual Dragons from his sword's aura, they each engulf one of his allies and lunge them upwards akin to a cannon, launching them with enough speed and momentum to momentarily ignore the change in gravity, enough to get them as close as possible to the switch in the middle of the room. Clara's reflexes and inner balancing quickly registered the gravity change, adjusting her form accordingly when she made contact with the new floor she looked towards the switch beginning to formulate a way to get there. Unfortunately for Kazuma his spiritual dragon that engulfed her was quickly absorbed by her Machia Ex Deus, its magic absorbing ability was not widely known among the guild, while she vaguely described it to the team she feared the explanation may have been too short for Kazuma to get the meaning of it until now. Luckily for her her absorbing magic can boost her just not the way Kazuma likely intended, her arms switching back to normal as her tail vanished from sight, a Black coloring beginning to cover her legs, her Black Steel augment had been activated as she leaped towards the switch. She was close but no fire as the gravity shifted, luckily she took this into account as her Scorpion Sting tail was launched from her arm wrapping around the switch but she as of yet could not reach the button on top of the switch. Either she would reach it soon enough or one of her allies would be able to press it. Category:Libertus Category:Libertus Roleplay Category:Grand Magic Games Category:Grand Magic Games X805